College Physics (4th Edition)

Published by McGraw-Hill Education
ISBN 10: 0073512141
ISBN 13: 978-0-07351-214-3

Chapter 7 - Problems - Page 264: 34

Answer

The minimum mass of the hero is $199.5~kg$. This scenario seems a bit unreasonable since the hero would need to be a gigantic character.

Work Step by Step

Let's assume that the center of mass of both people together is at the edge of the cliff and let this point be $x = 0$. Then the hero's center of mass is located at $x = -15~cm$. We can find the minimum mass of the hero $m_h$: $x_{com} = \frac{(m_h)(-15~cm)+(68~kg)(44~cm)}{m_h + 68~kg}$ $0 = \frac{(m_h)(-15~cm)+(68~kg)(44~cm)}{m_h + 68~kg}$ $0 = (m_h)(-15~cm)+(68~kg)(44~cm)$ $(m_h)(15~cm) = (68~kg)(44~cm)$ $m_h = \frac{(68~kg)(44~cm)}{15~cm}$ $m_h = 199.5~kg$ The minimum mass of the hero is $199.5~kg$. This scenario seems a bit unreasonable since the hero would need to be a gigantic character.
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